The coping strategies to fight against the food insecurity in the Republic of Niger
The food vulnerability is defined as « the analysis of coping strategies and reactions faced with structural or/and temporary shocks, if the coping strategies aren’t effective, the people are in situation temporary or structural of food vulnerability » (Andres L.. And Lebailly Ph., 2011). The structural shocks are caused by the chronicle difficulties (income, unfavorable environment,…) while the temporary shocks are tied at the « natural » disasters such as the hydrometeorological disasters, agricultural enemies. The coping strategies are classified on three groups : the reversible strategies (number of meal); the irreversible strategies (selling production goods); the distress strategies (selling land).
The food vulnerability and the coping strategies
Andres L. (landres@ulg.ac.be) and Lebailly Ph., Ulg-Gembloux Agro Bio Tech, economic and rural development unit
AIEAA Conference, « between crisis and development: witch role for the Bio-economy », Parma, 6-7 June 2013
Material and method
The paper is based on an annual survey realized by the Early Alert System (EAS) and the Statistical National Institute of Niger (INS). This survey characterized the state of food insecurity of households of Niger. The investigations of the household are based on stratified sampling. The sample is established from a significant sample a point of view of the departments of Niger. The time period studied is spread on 2008-2011. the analysis is realized with SPSS and the illustration is created with ARCGIS.
Result and discussion
Reversible strategies: the average number of collective meals is generally equal to 3 but the households of the north of Tahoua have a weak number of collective meal, either 2.
Irreversible strategies: the Eastern departments and Tchintarabaden and Abalak sell highest of production goods than other,
Distress strategies: the selling land is a strategy weakly used in the different department of Niger. But 8% of the households of Illela have sold their lands.
Conclusion
The results have demonstrated that the department of Tchintarabaden, Abalak, Tessaoua and Magaria have a weak number of meal, a high percentage of household practicing selling the goods and land. The Niger’s population develops many strategies to struggle against the structural and conjonctural shocks.
The correlation between the reversible and irreversible strategies is inversely proportional. There is significant with -0,417.
